Sitt looks to unload Meatpacking retail for $45M

Joseph Sitt’s Thor Equities is seeking $45 million for a Meatpacking District property it bought five years ago for about half that amount, Crain’s reported. Thor commissioned Jones Lang LaSalle to find a buyer for the three-story, 15,525-square-foot building, at 446 West 14th Street,Between Washington Street and 10th Avenue, it bought for $23.4 million in 2007.

The increased valuation of the property corresponds with the neighborhood’s meteoric price growth in the last five years. In 2003, rents hovered around $70 per foot for retail space. But with the influx of high-end and well-known retail stores to what has become a tourist destination, that number has skyrocketed to $500 per square foot for prime spaces. Still, sources told Crain’s the price was “no bargain.”

Sitt is not exiting the Meatpacking District entirely, as he still has the 75 percent he bought in December in the Morris Adjmi-designed mixed-use project at 837 Washington Street. Rather, the Thor CEO said he was selling the property to unlock equity needed for other partnership ventures. [Crain’s]